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“We’re not here to roast marshmallows around a fire…we are here to party…” Lzzy Hale
Anybody expecting a laid-back, sitting-on-stools, sedate acoustic show from Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger of Halestorm would have been in for a shock as the pair put on a ROCKSHOW. Minus a wall of Marshall amps, an arena-sized PA, a drummer, and a bassist, but a ROCKSHOW nonetheless. With copious amounts of booze sunk onstage.
48 hours after headlining the Opus Stage at Download Festival, and waving bandmates Josh Smith and Arejay Hale off, Halestorm vocalist/guitarist Lzzy Hale, and guitarist Joe Hottinger made the journey north (by way of London, as the pair allude to during the evening) for the UK debut of their much-lauded ‘The Living Room Sessions’ live show, where they strip it all back down for an intimate insight into the Grammy-winning band. And with Scotland already in the party mood after finally winning a World Cup match, and the controversial Bank Holiday that followed tonight’s show (spoiler alert: no matter what clickbait headlines you read, it wasn’t actually a holiday for the vast majority of Scotland’s populace), the arrival of #Jzzy in Glasgow was perfect timing.
With no support act, and no curfew, and coming so quickly after Download, this was as pressure-free as a gig gets, and the pair are so relaxed in each other’s company that the natural chemistry between the pair flows off the stage. You’ll rarely see arena-selling artists and festival headliners as natural as this, and at times Lzzy Hale, especially, is incredibly open, with a wicked sense of humour and a knowing glint in her eyes as she, for example, recollects the events that inspired ‘Do Not Disturb’: “…a very tempting, and lovely blonde…we had a good time, didn’t we Joe!”
Later on in the set, Lzzy talks about how, when preparing the latest album ‘Everest’, she stumbled upon the line “Why can’t you love me like a woman can”, and thought “…ooh, that’s spicy…there’s going to be a lot of people upset about that one!” As she said in her opening address, they are not here to roast marshmallows around a fire, ‘Kumbaya, My Lord’; this is not. ‘Like a Woman Can’, a great torch-song, and one of a handful of tracks to be aired from ‘Everest’.
Any thoughts that Lzzy will rein in her vocal pyrotechnics are quickly dispelled during the high-parts of ‘Do Not Disturb’, set-opener ‘I Get Off’, and THAT long note on ‘Freak Like Me’ – which has Lzzy Hale bending backward as she wrings out every inch of it, while Joe stops playing and simply stands back with a beaming smile from ear to ear – which are all dispatched in the opening 20 minutes.
‘I Am the Fire’ is still one of Halestorm’s greatest moments, and hearing it in this manner, with just vocals and an acoustic guitar, gives the crowd a glimpse into the way that the song was birthed, and at times the crowd is deathly silent, wrapped up in the vocals on display from the commanding Hale, who is in the form of her life. ‘In Your Room’ is another highlight of the opening set (a 20-minute break splits the 2-hour show in two), and as Joe tells the story, it is only in the set because a couple were hitting him up on social media to add it to the set because it was the first dance at their wedding. Before they perform the song, Lzzy tells the crowd how she is still amazed when she hears stories like that, or about Halestorm songs being played at funerals, or someone walking down the aisle to a Halestorm song; and it’s clear to see that it’s genuine and from the heart.
Cover versions play a major role in the Halestorm discography with various installments of the ‘ReAniMate: The CoVeRs’ EP’s being released over the years, and in this relaxed format a handful are performed. Boycotted by US radio stations in some states because of its misunderstood lyrics (it’s about jealousy and fixation, rather than literally, a girl crush), ‘Girl Crush’ by US country act Little Big Town is one of the best songs of the century and perfect for Lzzy Hale. Needless to say, she kills it, and with Joe picking the chords out, it’s stunning. Likewise, Skid Row’s ‘I Remember You’ is jaw-droppingly good, as is Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Gold Dust Woman’, which has the pair performing the song close enough to rest their forehead on the other’s forehead, and Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’ is gloriously fun.
The second half of the show is where the set really ramps up. First with Lzzy alone at the keyboard for an impassioned ‘Dear Daughter’ and ‘Break In’ (with a shout-out to Amy Lee, who performed it with Lzzy on the 2020 ‘Reimagined’ EP), and then when Joe comes back to the stage, the pair rip through ‘Love Bites (So Do I)’, ‘Mz Hyde’, and ‘I Miss the Misery’ all from 2012’s sophomore album ‘The Strange Case Of…’ which features heavily in tonights set. None more so than when the evening draws to a close with the knockout one-two of ‘The Rock Show’, followed by the traditional set-closer of ‘Here’s To Us’. Before the latter starts up, Joe disappears to the wings and comes back with two Scotland football shirts. Cue the crowd exploding with delight as they both put on one, and Lzzy Hale swigging from a bottle of wine, whilst wearing a blue Scotland football shirt, while the crowd shouts “Chug, chug, chug” was not on my 2026 bingo card. You had to be there.
So much to enthuse over. A flawless show from start to finish. Two hours of heartwarming entertainment that could have gone on for another hour and nobody would have minded. One question though: how come America suffers from so many rolling blackouts when the power from Lzzy Hale’s never-ending, gloriously infectious smile must be enough to power the country for at least a week?
An open love letter to music, but also a bittersweet one because it harks back to a time that is long gone. The time when letter-writing was a buzz, a time when getting a gig ticket meant queuing up outside a ticket office foolishly trying to count how many people were in the line in front of you, and then guessing who wouldn’t be lucky enough to get a ticket. A time of queuing up outside Tower Records at midnight to get THAT big album on sale at 00:01 and then rushing home to burst open the wrapping to finally hear what you have been waiting for weeks to arrive. Waiting for The Friday Rock Show on the radio because that was the only place to hear rock music. Lastly, the time of MTV actually playing music on the channel, because this was where so many ‘MTV Unplugged’ shows were recorded, and tonight’s show would not have looked out of place alongside such seminal recordings by giants such as Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and The Cranberries.
To be filed under “Not to be missed”. Check venues for any ticket returns on the few remaining dates.
All live images – Callum Scott
Review – Dave
